


Into the Aftermath

by StarshipHufflebadger



Category: Star Trek Into Darkness - Fandom, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, into darkness movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 00:12:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13512696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarshipHufflebadger/pseuds/StarshipHufflebadger
Summary: Follows Carol after her injury in the Into Darkness movie - takes place during the events near the end of the movie.





	Into the Aftermath

Carol sank tiredly down onto the bed in the small, sterile room she’d been shown into.  The ship had landed, Kirk had been taken to a special ward in the Starfleet medical centre, with Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock at his bedside.  She had helped take care of the minor injuries of the crew aboard the ship, and directed the more serious injuries into the medical centre.  Finally she’d been lead into a room herself, after one of the nurses had noticed how pale she’d gotten and realized her leg hadn’t been completely taken care of.  Dr. McCoy had set her leg and secured it tightly in a very sturdy splint, but the pain medicine he’d given her was starting to wear off and she could feel her calf throbbing.  The pain had started ebbing its way from her ankle up into her knee, creeping higher up her leg the more she moved around, the splint becoming less effective as she had dashed around, helping out.   So she wearily sat here now, waiting for someone to come and tend to her, glad to be off her feet.

She wasn’t glad for the quiet and isolation of the room, however.  Despite the physical agony of her leg, the real pain was in her head.  She picked up the small plastic cup of water someone had left on the tray table for her, though instead of drinking, she absently turned it in her hands, staring at it, trying not to think. Her mind was still reeling from what had happened, both about her father being a traitor and a horrible man, and from having to watch him die mere minutes after this terrible revelation.  Despite her absolute disgust as to what he’d done, she hadn’t wanted him to die, especially not the horrid way Khan had done it.  She shuddered as she sat there, shaking her head, trying to dislodge the awful image.  It was impossible, however, and she was forced to relive the event in her head several times before she could no longer stand it.

Carol gave a noise of distress and in a fit of frustration, threw the cup across the room.  It bounced off the wall opposite and dropped to the floor, the plastic rim cracking and water splashing everywhere.  Carol turned away as the cup rolled a bit before coming to a stop, already feeling bad about getting water all over, but unable to clean it up with her bad leg.  She let out a shaky breath and pulled herself up onto the bed so she could lie down properly, taking all the pressure off of her leg, which was starting to hurt with more intensity nearly every passing moment.

By the time she heard the door open about ten minutes later, she was lying on her back on the bed, her skin deathly pale and her face somewhat green around the edges.  Her hands were weakly gripping the thin blanket she was lying on top of, as she logically deduced that all the pain medicine was gone from her body.  She was clammy with a cold sweat and her heart was racing, but at least it was distracting her from the thoughts swirling in her mind.  She knew she could handle the knowledge of what had happened later, when she could think about it rationally, but at the moment she was almost glad of the preoccupation.

She looked over at the door as someone came inside the room and was surprised to see that it was Dr. McCoy entering.   She’d been expecting some other doctor or nurse, assuming that he would still be with Jim, monitoring the progress.  Dr. McCoy closed the door behind him and moved towards the bed she was lying on, meeting her eyes and giving her the briefest attempt at a smile before setting his medical kit down on the counter beside him.

“How is Jim?” Carol asked, ignoring the weakness in her voice from the pain and nausea.  He didn’t seem to notice her tone, lost in his own thoughts.

“He’s about as stable as he’s gonna get right now,” he answered wearily, running a hand through his already messy hair - a clear sign he’d been doing that same movement repeatedly.  "Khan’s blood is replacing his own, which will stop the irradiation effects.  I hope.“ He sounded strained, worried and above all, tired.

"Dr. McCoy-” she began, but he waved a hand at her somewhat impatiently, shaking his head.

“Leonard.  I told you before, call me Leonard,” he corrected her, his voice distracted as he searched his kit for the supplies he needed.

“Right, Leonard.” Carol amended, trying not to wince as her leg gave a particularly painful throb.  "Maybe you should go back to monitor him?“ she asked gently, watching his face.  "Anyone can deal with my leg, I’d rather you be with him if it would make you feel more confident about his recovery.”  She was going to say more but he’d shaken his head.

“There’s nothing more I can do now ‘cept watch and wait,” Bones told her, removing a vial of liquid from his kit and beginning to load it into a hypospray.  "Spock’s with him now, and I-“ he paused, his hands stilling for a moment as he got lost in a thought.  "I just needed some air.”  He finished loading the injection gun and brought it over to the bed, putting it down on the tray table.  

Carol could hear the emotion he was trying to ban from his voice, and could see from his eyes how troubled he was.  She understood.  If it had been one of her best friends lying there dying, she would have been overwhelmed too if all she could do was sit there and hope that his only shot at life would work.  She had the instinctual urge to comfort him, but wasn’t sure if he’d welcome it or not, so she abstained.  It was also getting hard to concentrate on anything besides the pain now, and she let out a soft whimper without meaning to, alerting him to her plight.

“How’s your leg feeling?” he asked, turning from his supplies, moving over to her side and inspecting the splint.  He saw that it had come undone in a couple of places and sighed, though she didn’t notice.

“I’ve had better days,” she said, giving a pained laugh that stopped short a second later as her leg twinged, causing a quickly stifled gasp to escape her.  Bones frowned down at her leg and then glanced up at her seriously, looking concerned but also irritated.

“I told you not to exert yourself,” he scolded her, tugging on one of the straps of the splint, trying to re-adjust it.  She cried out as a shock of pain went through her leg, but realized that after the jolt, it felt secure again.  He must have fixed the splint.  She let out a trembling sigh and leaned back against the pillow, feeling shaky and nauseated.   “Sorry for that.  But this splint isn’t made for normal, walking-around use,” he told her, feeling bad for causing her a bit more pain but frustrated that she hadn’t done what he’d asked.  "You didn’t rest at all, did you?  Why don’t people ever listen to me?“ His voice was resigned, and she had a feeling that Bones was thinking a lot more of other people (likely Jim) than herself, but she still thought the comment a little unfair.   She likely would have brushed it aside had she been well and feeling like herself, but she didn’t feel normal right now and felt the need to address it.

"I was helping,” she told him, unabashed, meeting his eyes unblinkingly, though she was still shaking a bit.  "There were a lot of people hurt.  I may not be a medical doctor but I do know my way around my fair share of injuries,“ she informed him.  "I wasn’t going to let some pain stop me.”

Bones’ expression softened a little at this and he flashed her a tight smile, patting the knee of her good leg.

“Thanks for that help, then,” he said gruffly.  "The nurses must have been overwhelmed.“  His tone was a guilty one, and she guessed he felt bad for running off with Spock to care for Jim and leaving everyone else behind.  Again, she didn’t blame him, would likely have done the same herself, but she wasn’t sure how to reassure him.

"We managed alright,” she said simply, hoping it would placate him.  He nodded, and she tensed a little as he reached out and pulled the skirt of her blue Starfleet uniform dress up a few inches from her knees.

“I’m gonna numb your leg before I take the splint off, okay?” He said briefly, gesturing to her knee area with the hypo that was now back in his hand.   She flinched with a gasp as she heard the loud click and then hissing sound of the trigger being pulled and the medicine being injected and felt a sharp stabbing sensation just below her knee.   Within seconds, however, she could feel the numbness spreading down her lower leg, making the pain ebb away.

Carol let out a long sigh of relief and relaxed back against the pillows, letting her body rest for the first time since she’d gotten on the bed, not realizing she’d been holding herself so rigidly the whole time.

“Thank you, that’s much better,” she told him, the relief clearly evident in her voice.  He nodded again and began to remove the splint, his hands working quickly and skillfully, and she suspected he could do this in his sleep.  He’d removed it in thirty seconds or so and set it aside, carefully easing her broken leg down onto the bed.  She watched him passively as he examined it, checking to make sure it was still set properly.  He was poking and prodding a little in different areas, but the numbing agent was powerful; she thankfully felt nothing.  She felt grateful that she lived in a time when such a thing was possible; if she’d felt much more pain she suspected she would have thrown up or passed out.  Perhaps both.

She zoned out a bit as he did his work, barely noticing as he wrapped her leg in a high-tech mesh that was super strong but very light, barely a centimeter or two thick once he’d layered it properly around for the stability she needed.  

“How are you doing?” he asked her, finishing off the wrap at the bottom and inspecting his work, glancing over at her as he did so.  She came out of her daze and looked at him, then looked down at what he’d done, seemingly noticing the dark green  mesh cast for the first time.

“Oh, I still can’t feel anything,” she told him,  giving him a weak half smile, her eyes drooping a little.  After all the adrenaline, emotion and pain of the day, now that her leg felt about as much pain as a wooden log, she was feeling unbelievably exhausted.    She looked up again in time to see Bones shake his head and look at her, stepping away from her leg and closer to her upper body, finished with his task.

“No, I meant-” he hesitated, clearly wondering if he should continue, but then he went for it. “I meant about your dad.  The admiral.  I mean, what you saw Khan do…” he trailed off, seeing a look of anguish flash in her eyes and immediately felt bad for saying anything.

The images flooded her brain once more at Bones’ words and overwhelmed her for a moment.   She once again relived the anger and disgust she felt at her father’s betrayal, and then despite her bad feelings, the absolute horror at watching Khan kill him moments later.  She shook herself and swallowed thickly, trying and failing to smile at him.

“I’m, uh–” she tried to say that she was okay, but she couldn’t get the words out, her voice catching a bit.  She didn’t want to tell him what she was feeling, either.  She needed to work through her thoughts before she could talk about them, and the memory of the events were too recent and raw for her to process yet.  

Bones seemed to understand and put a warm, steady hand on her arm.  She looked down at it for a brief moment and then up at him, seeing a serious, but earnest expression on his face.

“You can talk to me  if you want, when you’re ready.” he told her.  "I may not seem like the sentimental type, but I’m a pretty good listener.“  His voice was softer than usual, though he still looked a little grumpy, in contrast with the honest clarity in his eyes.  It was a rather endearing combination, and Carol found herself giving him a small but genuine smile.

"Thank you, Leonard,” she said quietly, briefly allowing her fingers to brush the back of his hand where it lay on her arm in an attempt to show him she really meant it.  Carol really appreciated the gesture, especially since she didn’t really have anyone to talk to, not having had a chance to get to know anyone on the crew yet, besides what little time she’d had with either himself or Jim Kirk.  He nodded, the corner of one side of his lips crooking just slightly, before turning back to the med kit and setting up an IV drip on the pole next to her bed.

“I’m going to put you on a drip overnight.   Saline with some morphine on reserve, in case you’re in pain when you wake up.” he told Carol, connecting the bag of clear liquid to the IV machine attached to the pole.  He moved towards the bed and after making sure she was ready, inserting the catheter and attached it to the IV line.   She nodded, so tired now she’d barely felt the sting from the insertion, her head lolling against the pillow.

Bones covered her with a couple of extra blankets from the cabinet across the room, not wanting to make her move to get under the covers she was lying on top of.  By the time he’d tucked the blanket carefully around her legs  and up to her shoulders, her eyes were closed.  He smoothed the blanket over her arm and looked down at her for a moment, just watching her relaxed expression.  He didn’t think she was asleep yet but she was so close that she’d gone completely limp, one hand across her stomach, her slim fingers curling loosely down her side.

He turned and closed up his medical kit, and was just walking to the door when he heard her shift.  Bones paused and turned to look at her, watched her open her eyes and focus on him a little sluggishly.

“Tell Jim to hurry up and get better,” she said sleepily, her eyes already drooping.  "So you can stop worrying…“ her voice trailed off at the end, and even as he watched, her face went slack and she began to breathe slowly and evenly, finally resting.

Bones winced as his head throbbed, all his worries and concerns about Jim rushing back to him, flooding his brain so hard it began to hurt.  He put a hand to his forehead, grimacing.  He was confused for a moment as to why they’d even had to come back, he’d been so focused on them before it seemed like they’d never be gone.  But then he realized that while he’d been in there with Carol, his thoughts had mostly cleared without him even realizing it.

Trying to work out this strange development in his brain, he shook his head and left the room, closing the door silently behind himself.  He was going to go sit with Spock and watch Jim’s progress  for a while and then get some rest himself before he actually passed out from exhaustion.

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment! <3


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